Top 2 US Air Force officials removed for failures in N-arms oversight

Mumbai: In an unprecedented move, US Defence Secretary Robert M Gates yesterday announced the removal of Air Force's civilian and military chiefs, after classified Pentagon investigations found "a chain of failures" in the Air Force's safeguarding of the US nuclear arsenal.

Air Force secretary Michael W. Wynne and the chief of staff Gen. T. Michael "Buzz" Moseley, were removed from office because of what Gates said "the focus of the Air Force leadership has drifted with respect to perhaps its most sensitive mission."

The two were responsible for varios omissions and commissions, that included a US Air Force bomber wing inadvertently flying nuclear warheads over the continental United States, the mistaken and long-unnoticed transfer of secret nuclear-related materials to Taiwan, and a corrupt $50 million contract for a Thunderbirds air show that went to a company owned by a retired four-star general and a civilian friend of senior Air Force leaders.

This is the first time the military and civilian heads of a service are fired at the same time.

In March 2007, Gates also forced Army secretary Francis J. Harvey to resign over his handling of problems in care for wounded outpatient soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The Taiwan incident involved four Air Force ballistic missile fuses being mistakenly shipped to Taiwan from the Defense Logistics Agency in 2006. The classified materials were in Taiwan military control for about 17 months.

The investigation, led by Adm. Kirkland H. Donald, the Pentagon's top official for nuclear safety, also found a "gradual erosion" of nuclear standards, technical expertise and oversight over the past decade.

Gates also noted that even after two highly publicized incidents in which the Air Force lost control over nuclear components, the Air Gforce failed to order a thorough investigation.

In August, the service lost track of warheads for 36 hours when it unknowingly flew them between those bases, in North Dakota and Louisiana.

Gates said a "substantial number" of Air Force generals and colonels also have been identified as "potentially subject to disciplinary measures."

Gates thanked the two men for their service. "Mike Wynne is a dedicated and honorable public servant," he said, "and Buzz Moseley has given decades of courageous and devoted service to his country."